Saturday, January 26, 2013

BIPARTISANSHIP IS UNAMERICAN ... J. . Longstreet

BIPARTISANSHIP IS UNAMERICANA Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

********************I hate to tell you this… but BIPARTISANSHIP is “UNAMERICAN”!

Yep!

This is a partisan country. Partisans founded it. It was founded because
there was a HUGE difference of opinion between the people of the
colonies and the King of England. Democracy is “partisan”. It is the
nature of our country and the nature of our government.

Allow me to tell you a short story that might help clear up the
misunderstanding about the partisan and bipartisan nature of our country
and government:

There was a truly bitter election back in the year 1800 between John
Adams and Thomas Jefferson. When all the voting was finished Thomas
Jefferson had won. But… and here is the big but… as the result of a
quirk in the way the Electoral College worked at the time, Jefferson was
tied with his own Vice-Presidential candidate, Aaron Burr.

If you are ahead of me here. You know that things just got completely
out of hand. See, the election went to the House of Representatives. The
Federalists, who had supported John Adams, hated Thomas Jefferson so
much they decided to throw all their support to his Vice-Presidential
candidate Aaron Burr. Now, at the very moment Burr understood that he
just MIGHT become President, well, it was “Katie bar the door!” Burr
pulled out all the stops and he began maneuvering for those votes.

Back then the rules required the House of Representatives to vote by
state. Well, on the first ballot Jefferson had eight states. That was
one state short of what he needed. Six states voted for Burr and two
states were tied. Now, over the next few days the House of
Representatives had thirty-two more ballots… and guess what? Nothing
changed; Jefferson and Burr remained tied as the vote totals remained
unchanged!

Things were getting hot in The House... And that’s putting it mildly!
Why, Jefferson’s supporters threatened to arm themselves and cause all
sorts of bad things, including throwing some hot lead around the Well of
the House, if Jefferson was not elected! And… they were not kidding!
President John Adams, himself, is on record as having wrote: “a civil
war was expected.” Things were so hot and tempers were so inflamed and
the fear of violence was so grave that the governor of Virginia, who, by
the way, was a Jefferson supporter, placed guards around a supply of
4,000 firearms to prevent them being seized by the Federalist and
possibly used in forcing an outcome favoring their candidate.

The sole congressman from Delaware, a fellow by the name of John Bayard,
controlled his state’s vote. The Federalists had been, up to this
point, supporting Burr. But, after three days of ballot after ballot,
Bayard announced that he was going to abstain. That would throw the
election to Jefferson. Some really angry Federalist took to the floor of
the house and shouted “Traitor, Traitor” at Bayard. But ole John Bayard
stood his ground. He later said he did it to save his country.

As a result, the deadlock was broken and Thomas Jefferson became the
President. Some four years later Alexander Hamilton was shot and killed
in a duel with Aaron Burr. Hamilton had been one of the Federalists who
refused to support Burr under any circumstances. Hamilton referred to
Burr as “the most unfit man in the U.S. for the office of President.”

I share this wee bit of US history in an attempt to demonstrate that
partisanship in the government of the US is in no way new. No.
Absolutely not! It is the way the government works, it is the way the
government was planned to work. Those loud calls for bipartisanship are
deceptive as can be. They are used often as a tool to divert your
attention away from the conniving behind the scenes by the very
congresspersons calling loudest for bipartisanship. Understand that in a
bipartisan House of Representatives, for example, it would insure that
every piece of legislation coming before that body would be passed. That
includes the rotten pieces of legislation as well as the good. At least
with a partisan House the legislation will be debated and examined
before it is passed or defeated.

The fact that Obama is polarizing the country is no surprise to those of
us who have been around the block a few times. That was a given from
the “git go.” The country is split, almost exactly in half, over Obama
and his henchman’s plans for the country. I count myself, proudly,
amongst that half who wants to see Obama’s presidency fail, utterly, and
his plans and machinations all come to naught. If I am right, and I
believe that I am, things are going to get a lot worse in the
Polarization Department as the months and years go by, and all the
trials and tribulations the American people are going to have to bear
under an Obama regime unfold.

Many of those Americans who voted for Obama will rue the day! Had they
listened to the warnings from us “Old Bulls” they could have saved
themselves, and the country, a lot of grief.

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